The present invention relates generally to the field of muscle disease (i.e., myopathy) and pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment or prevention of muscle disease or the symptoms thereof. In particular, the present invention relates to the field of neuromuscular diseases such as muscular dystrophies and pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment or prevention of symptoms thereof.
Many neuromuscular conditions are characterized by an exaggerated exercise-induced fatigue response that is disproportionate to activity level. This fatigue does not necessarily correlate with elevated central or peripheral fatigue in patients (Schillings et al. 2007), and some patients experience severe fatigue without any demonstrable somatic disease (Zwarts et al. 2007). Except in myopathies that are due to specific metabolic defects, the mechanism underlying this type of fatigue remains unknown (Zwarts et al. 2007). With no treatment available, this form of inactivity is a major determinant of disability (Kalkman et al. 2007). Here, using mouse models, it is shown that this exaggerated fatigue response is distinct from a loss in specific force production by muscle, and that sarcolemma-localized nNOS signaling in skeletal muscle is required to maintain activity after mild exercise. Of significance, nNOS-null mice have no muscle pathology and no loss of muscle specific-force after exercise, but do display this exaggerated fatigue response to mild exercise. In mouse models of nNOS mislocalization from the sarcolemma, prolonged inactivity was only relieved by pharmacologically enhancing the cGMP signal that results from muscle nNOS activation during the nitric oxide signaling response to mild exercise. These findings suggest that the mechanism underlying the exaggerated fatigue response to mild exercise is a lack of contraction-induced signaling from sarcolemma-localized nNOS, which reduces cGMP-mediated vasomodulation in the vessels that supply active muscle after mild exercise. Notably, sarcolemmal nNOS was reduced in patient biopsies from a large number of distinct myopathies, suggesting a common mechanism of fatigue. These results suggest that patients with an exaggerated fatigue response to mild exercise would show clinical improvement in response to treatment strategies aimed at improving exercise-induced signaling such as strategies that improve cGMP signaling.